Easy Batik – NO Wax or Dye needed!

This easy Batik is a WONDERFUL activity to do – yourself or with children!

No hot wax is used – and no dye, so children of all ages can do this!

We made a table cloth for our outside table.

This is a joint project!

I drew the fish and Emma colored them in! She put on all the color!

We chose fish because they come in all shapes and sizes – and we could make them up! It also allowed us to include a bright blue background – which is the color we wanted! We created fish, but of course you could use this technique for anything you wanted to paint!

Easy Batik Materials:

Fabric. We used bull denim as we were making an outdoor table cloth and wanted it to be thick and durable. Any fabric that takes fabric paint works! We used white!

Electric whisk or something to make the flour and water paste smooth! You can do this by hand too.

How to make this wonderful Easy Batik Art?

Decide on what you want to make – something specific – like we made a table cloth – or an apron or a pillow case…

Or just create art! Use a piece of fabric as a canvas!!

The fabric needs to be ironed flat before you start

Then you need to make your flour and water paste

I added a cup of flour to a bowl and then I added water in small amounts – whisking all the time – until I was left with a smooth thick paste. The paste needs to be thick as otherwise it runs all over the fabric and it needs to be smooth, this ensures that it does not come out the squeeze bottle in bursts every time a lump gets stuck in the nozzle!!

Once you have your paste you can draw (squeeze) onto your fabric

The paste essentially creates the outlines. Where there is paste there is going to be no paint!

I used white fabric as I wanted my outlines and small details in white. I also prefer painting onto white fabric as color comes up best!

Once you have completed your picture or design the paste needs to dry completely before you start painting!

We left ours overnight.

And then we got started on the painting!

Fabric paint seeps through the fabric so make sure you cover your work top with newspaper or something else protective!

We painted our fish first and then the background was painted blue.

TIP: fabric paint is absorbed into the fabric quite fast, as a result you need quite a bit. Don’t underestimate how much fabric paint you are going to use – especially if you paint something big like this table cloth. To give you an indication we used about 400ml / 13.5 fl oz of blue!

Once you have finished painting everything the paint needs to dry!

Most paint should dry overnight, however in some spots where the paint was quite thick we had to leave it for a few days before it was completely dry!

You need to set the fabric paint as per your own paints instructions. We iron ours.

Once the paint is set you can remove the flour and water paste.

I do this by first peeling off as much as I can – it is rather soothing…

Then I chuck it into the washing machine on a cold wash to remove what’s left

What you are left with is a wonderful design – almost batik like!

Such a brilliant project to do, by yourself or with kids!

It is an easy art technique that creates the most spectacular results!
Every time we take out the table cloth Emma says, “I made this,” and looks at all the fish in detail!